Little Bee Newsletter February 2021 |
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Welcome to all our new families! We would like to extend a HUGE welcome to all our new children and their families. We would like to remind all families, if you have any questions, comments or concerns at any time, please chat to us. We are here to help and we value any questions at any time. Feel free to call the centre throughout the day to see how your child is settling in; Ph: 62485994 (Airport) and 62478015 (Howrah) Our Facebook page offers a little insight of each day in our rooms, if you would like to join up – please see a member of the management team! |
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Our Little Bee Twilight Event was lots of fun, the weather was quite muggy and warm, yet the rain still poured down (in stages). Luckily the TRC moved the children's activities indoors to the racing hall and kept us dry! We would like to say a huge, huge thankyou to all the families who attended the event and braved the rain. It was lovely to see a few familiar faces come along, we really appreciate it!! The poor reptile man had a minor car crash on his way to the event and sadly didn't make it (luckily himself and his snakes are all ok) but we missed him. Thank-you to Allie and Malou (educators) who also attended the event and joined in the fun. |
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Is your family new to Little Bee and have you downloaded the KidsXap App? As a child care provider, Little Bee is required to include children's actual attendance times in families' statements of entitlement and in session reports (except absences).
Our software provider, KidsXap advise that the quickest, easiest and most sustainable method for everyone is for families to download the 'KidsXap Guardian' app from the app store. If you have any trouble downloading or accessing the app, please let us know. If you do not have access to a compatible device, please let us know and we can ensure we print statements for you monthly.
Why it is important that we report actual attendance times?
Reporting actual attendance times is intended to help families understand the relationship between the fees they are charged, the amount of subsidy paid to their child care provider on their behalf, and their out of pocket expenses. We would like to inform families that we are currently only using the first 3 icons of the app 'manage families', 'attendance' and 'statements'. We are hoping to introduce some of the others features as the year progresses! If you have any questions please contact us on littlebee@littlebee.net.au or phone 62485994. Thank you |
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Regatta Day Public Holiday On Monday the 8th of February, Little Bee will be closed due to the Royal Hobart Regatta. The Regatta is a three-day event that runs over the weekend of the second Monday each February. The Monday is a public holiday for a large part of southern and eastern Tasmania. The long weekend is packed with water events on the Derwent River and anyone can participate in the regatta, either as a competitor or as a spectator. More information and an events list can be found at: publicholidays.com.au/royal-hobart-regatta |
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An invitation to our Family and Friends Committee Meeting for Little Bee Howrah and Airport for 2021 As COVID-19 restrictions are beginning to ease, we are excited to be recommencing our family and friends meeting. It will be held at Red Square on Monday 15th of February at 9.30 a.m. If you would like to attend, we would absolutely love to have you come along and have a coffee and brunch if you fancy it! At this meeting we will plan our whole centre events (both internal and external) for 2021! This includes our fundraising participation, our family fun day events for the year and our health and well-being events! If you are keen to join us, but unable to attend on this date, please let us know and we will try and arrange a different time. Please email Kathy or Emily if you can make it! littlebee@littlebee.net.au |
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Bike Week 2021 7th - 14th March The Tasmanian Bicycle Council coordinates the statewide Bike Week, held in the first full week of March every year since 2001. Bike Week promotes recreational, sport and transport bicycle riding and aims to give people opportunities and support to ride more often. This is the calendar of events for rides and bike-related events during Bike Week from bicycle organisations, user groups and event managers. Please contact them directly for more details. COVID-19 restrictions and outbreaks may affect these events, so please check closer to the date to ensure they are going ahead. Saturday 6 March - Devonport Family bike session – Bicycle Network, Pioneer Park, East Devonport, bike check at 10.30 am, ride at 11 am. Sunday 7 March - Monday 8 March - Tuesday 9th March - Wednesday 10th March - - Children’s Story Time & fun ride in the Square – Tamar BUG, 10.15 am, Launceston Library.
- Pop up display in the Brisbane Street Mall – Tamar BUG, all things about bike riding fun in Launceston, from 10 am.
- Bike Riding 101 Free beginners class – Tamar BUG, 6.30 pm, Royal Park or QVMAG. Register at contactus@tbug.org.au or 0416 310 722. Refreshments provided.
- Public Forum – Staying Healthy: Integrating Preventative health strategies with a more active Tasmania – Tamar BUG, Enterprize Centre, Macquarie House, Civic Square, 7.30 pm.
Thursday 11th March - Bike Polo match for experienced players – Hobart Bike Polo, Unigym outdoor courts in Sandy Bay, 5.30-7.30, contact tuuhbpc@gmail.com, $10 one-off price, $5 for regular players.
- Pop up display in the Brisbane Street Mall – Tamar BUG, all things about bike riding fun in Launceston, from 10 am.
- Launceston Bike Maintenance Workshop 2 – Tamar BUG, 6.30 pm, Roll Cycles, 112 Cimitiere St. Register at contactus@tbug.org.au or 63252940. Refreshments provided.
Friday 12th March Saturday 13th March - Family Ride to Cornelian Bay – Bicycle Network, Cenotaph Car Park to Cornelian Bay along the Intercity Cycleway, 9.45 am – 12 pm, RSVP online. Free. 6.8 km. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Ride 2 Night – Tamar BUG, bling up your bike & you, QVMAG car park, 7.30 pm.
Sunday 14th March |
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What’s been happening at Little Bee Airport… Baby Bees Welcome to Baby Bee’s 2021, what a great start to the year we have had! As we welcomed new babies into our room, the children have been bonding and connecting in a loving way with both peers and educators. As they start to build secure attachment with educators, the children also grow in confidence and begin to explore the world around them. We have noticed this having a significant impact on each child's development! The children have been exploring new environments in our room and in our playground. We have seen them make huge strides towards mobility through crawling, climbing on the frames outside, and some children have started to walk, showing great perseverance to get from one side of the room to another. We have also shown our artistic talents, enjoying some finger painting and texta drawings with different colours. Honey Bees We have welcomed in the new year many new friends starting in the Honey Bee room and we have observed the children building secure attachments with the educators and each other. We said goodbye to many of the older Honey Bee children and wish you all the best. We have watched the children gain confidence as they explore their new environment and engage in many social and physical environments, especially the outdoors. Over the past few weeks we have been doing different art experiences as a larger group to support friendships and help the children to feel safe. The children have been creatively expressing themselves as we investigated different colours and materials using our senses of see, hear, touch, feel and taste. We are encouraging children to be verbally and non verbally involved. We also started looking at aspects of our 'Move Well, Eat Well' program and created an interactive wall for the children, which we will investigate further into February. If your child has a favourite recipe we would love to make it here and share it on our wall. |
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Bumble Bees We'd like to say a big welcome to all children and families to the Bumble Bee room. Several children have transitioned from the Honey Bee Room and have settled in with us so well! We have said goodbye to many children who have now moved to the Busy Bee Room this week. Recently we have seen many new friendships form and existing friendships blossom to their full potential! During the month of January we have been doing a range of art and craft experiences including; collage and drawing and painting with different resources and mediums. The children have enjoyed engaging in water play experiences when the sun has been shining! We have enjoyed lots of visits to the garden and feeding the chooks. The children have had lots of conversations with the children around how we can look after and care for the chooks. On a few occasions we have returned with some fresh eggs, which the children thoroughly enjoyed collecting! Busy Bees This month we have been focusing on a variety of art work for display, doing collages using natural materials, such as: dried flowers and leaves. The children have really enjoyed creating art with glitter paint and recycled ice cream containers, as well as sponge and peg paintings - creating amazing patterns. You can find all our lovely art work on display in our room. We have also been very interested in roleplay with our china tea set and felt pizza, where we have been creating different flavours on the pizzas (cheese and tomato pizzas being a favourite) and serving them to our peers. We have been very busy making friends and discovering the many exciting environments that the busy bee room has to offer. We cant wait to see what the year brings. Queen Bees We offer a huge warm welcome to all the new children who have now transitioned form Busy Bees. Throughout the month of January the Queen Bee’s have been engaging in lots of positive interactions and engaging in a variety of new experiences. We all created our own versions of the New Years Eve fireworks using sponges and glitter, which in turn created some wonderful conversations between the children, as they swapped stories about the fireworks that they had seen. Water play with sea animals and loose parts play have been very popular among all of the children. Building with lego, construction blocks and cardboard boxes and other natural resources has also had our imaginations and creativity flowing. We have been looking at recycling and doing collage using recycled paper from old and broken books and bits and pieces of paper that have only been partly used and discarded. Please remember to pack a wide brimmed hat labelled with your child’s name on it. Thank you |
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Mel and Maricel are finishing up at Little Bee Airport We are very sad to let all our families know that Mel and Maricel are both leaving Little Bee to embark on new adventures. Mel has worked as a wonderful part time qualified educator at Little Bee for almost 8 years, her last day is Wednesday the 10th. Maricel has been our fabulous administration lady for the past 3 years, her last day is Friday the 19th! We will miss both the ladies very much, would like to thank them for their commitment to Little Bee and wish them all the best for the next chapter of their journey! |
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What’s been happening at Little Bee Howrah… January is a month of new beginnings and also sad farewells as we welcome new friends and say goodbye to Little Bee children heading off to school. Lots of mixed emotions as we stand back and feel so proud of how our existing children welcome their new friends; showing them the ropes and where to find all the best toys. We are confident that our children have gained useful life long skills of independence, resilience and empathy during their time here at Little Bee, that will support them in their journey through their school years. In January we have used our programming wall to create a wall to help the children recognise what it means to belong. In doing this we have been printing photos of our interactions whilst playing and displaying them for the children to see and start discussions. The educators added an interactive experience to the wall, this provides the children with the ability to dress the people using a variety of pieces (t-shirts, shorts, skirts, trousers, shoes and hats), creating their own style and outfits. Experiences such as this encourage independence of self -help skills and discussions on clothing and footwear appropriate to the weather. During our group times we have added a good morning song that includes actions and greetings in different languages. All the children have enjoyed this, remembering each greeting and what culture it is from. We are getting to know the cultures of our children and this is bringing a sense of belonging, inclusion and also developing stronger partnerships between families and Little Bee. Good morning, good morning, we like to say good morning. Each happy day, before we play, we like to say good morning. We then change the word "good morning" to a different greeting, such as: ‘Selam’, ‘Ni Hao’, ‘Konnichiwa’, ‘Bulla’ and many more. The setting up of meaningful sensory experiences has given the children an opportunity to wash the babies, paint using different brushes, access play dough, water colour art, cutting and gluing and so much more. Our My Family Wall In light of helping children settle and feel safe, please bring in one photo for us of your family. This can either be emailed, sent via face book to Alice or printed. Your child will really love seeing their family and learn about other children and thier famileis too. |
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Rash vests and bathers bottoms! |
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We are so lucky to be having this beautiful, sunny weather, although the weather has been a little up and down, we are hoping that February and March continue to bring us some more fun in the sun! We will be doing as much water play as we can, so if you would like to pack a rash vest (so that shoulders and upper arms are covered) and a pair of bather bottoms for you child, it will enable them to participate in water play comfortably and then they can put their warm, dry clothes back on afterwards! Please name any suits to ensure we don't have any go missing and also packing extra clothes along if possible (2 lots of everything would be fabulous!) |
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Immunisations Please ensure your child’s immunisations are up to date, the current national immunisation schedule is displayed in our centres, so you can ensure your child’s immunisations are on track. |
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Post Card/Picture Walls This special wall at each centre is all about celebrating our wonderful Country and the places we can visit around Tasmania, Australia and the World! However, as we are all aware, lots of travel has been on hold due to COVID -19 and is only just starting up again. Some families may have been lucky enough to take a local holiday in our beautiful State over the summer holidays! We would like to encourage our children to bring in a post card or photograph of their recent holiday, we can print or photo copy it here. This gives us a chance to chat about trips we have taken and to celebrate our family cultures. We use our wall to pin the post cards or photographs up. If you have recently been away on holidays and have a post card or picture to share, you could join in the fun! At Little Bee Airport, the map is on the hallway wall outside the staff room – we have many postcards up already! At Little Bee Howrah we currently have a map of Tassie displayed on the wall in between the staffroom and the kitchen. |
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Family Participation Thank you to all families who have participated in our programs, offered help and assistance, donated toys and recyclables and given input into our programs in the past, it is so greatly appreciated. During 2020, our visitors were limited to those working in essential services, but as we head into 2021, the future is looking much brighter. If you have any spare time and would like to share an interest or have input into our programs this year, we would love to have you! Please chat with one of your child’s educators, the opportunities for family involvement are endless. Learning is EVERYWHERE... At Little Bee our learning takes us everywhere!! Therefore, it is essential to remember to pack a spare change of clothes, for those moments we explore the garden, sandpit, water play or get involved in some messy experiments or craft. Please ensure your child’s shoulders are covered with sleeves and they wear a broad rimmed or legionnaire style hat. Little Bee supply’s 50 + sunscreen but if you have a particular brand of sun screen you would like your child to use, please provide this on the day and let your room team know so we can make a yellow sunscreen preference card for your child! |
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Information for Review We are currently reviewing the following policies and/or procedures: 1.8 - Technology Policy 1.9 - Profile book policy 2.1 - Emergency and evacuation 2.2 – Incident, injury, trauma and illness 2.3 - Medication 2.4 – Administration of first aid 2.5 – Supporting children with medical conditions (including Asthma, Anaphylaxis, Diabetes and other relevant medical conditions) If you would like to have input reviewing these documents it would be greatly appreciated, just let us know and we will forward copies to you. Please compose any suggestions you would like to make and place them, either in the suggestions box (at reception) or via email to: littlebee@littlebee.net.au. Information for families Our chosen readings for the month of February 2021 are: If you would like a copy forwarded, please email us and we will send an electronic copy to you. Other readings can be found on the internet from recognised sites, such as: kidsafe.com.au, rch.org.au, acecqa.gov.au, deewr.gov.au and kidswithasthma.com.au, healthinsite.gov.au Opportunities for Family Involvement Educator Professional learning sessions are held on a bi-monthly basis. They are to reflect on our current practices, work on our Centre’s Quality Improvement Plan and continue to maintain the highest standard of education and care possible. Our next professional learning session will be held over two sessions on Tuesday 9th and Thursday 11th February, 2021 with Heidi Smit, (Occupational Therapist, Manager at MouthWorks Therapy Centre). All families are invited to join us at our PL sessions, your ideas and opinions are greatly valued and appreciated. Families are also welcome to participate daily in Workplace health and safety checks and/or compliance reviews. Please see one of the staff if you are interested. |
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